CHAPTER 6
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. This was also known as '1pm', but all the clocks in Yui and Gendo's new apartment were 24 hour clocks.
"You're going where?" asked Gendo over lunch.
"I'm really sorry, but I have a conference in Germany," Yui said. "My degree paper is one of the top topics of discussion there, and I'm getting all expenses paid. I understand…"
"No, what I mean is, where is Germany?"
Yui recalibrated her expectations. It may have been nearly a year since Gendo had arrived from space, but that just meant his knowledge of Earth was a trifle eclectic. They had moved in together after Yui completed her degree - which Mari hadn't taken well - and were living a life of contented domestic bliss and also sinister conspiring. "It's a country in Europe."
"Uh huh."
"... on the other side of the world."
"Oh." Gendo swallowed a sandwich whole. "How long?"
"Five days." Yui rubbed her eyes. "Urgh, I'm going to be wrecked by jet lag while I'm over there. I suppose I'll just have to run entirely on coffee."
"I could fly over there," he said.
Her smile didn't reach her eyes. "I'm going to be busy all the time," she said. "And I'm going to need to be working on my presentation. It's not finished yet. Sorry, Gendo."
Despite being a murderous ape-man from outer space, he looked like nothing more than a kicked puppy at that. And then he sighed. "Well, I suppose. I have things I need to do for 'our mutual friends'."
"See! You need to think of your career too."
Gendo finished off the last of the noodles. "But it's just not the same without you. It's meeting with people and it's dull."
"Are you remembering to make cryptic remarks? Cryptic remarks are important. They help cover up any weakness or uncertainty."
"Yes, dear."
Yui wasn't here. Gendo stared at the wall, blankly. Yui wasn't here, and he was alone.
Bright sunlight shone down through the windows. He got up and closed them, then lay back down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. His tail itched; he scratched it. Without her, he felt like an unwound toy. He felt cold and grey, like he wasn't alive.
It was funny - in a not very funny way - how the last year had changed him. A year ago, he had just been fine being alone. Well, not truly fine, but loneliness had been the base state of his being.
Now, having had someone, he realised what he had lost - and what he had never had.
He growled to himself. He was even thinking of himself as 'Gendo' now. What kind of pathetic excuse for a saiyan warrior was he? Moping and brooding because his alien lover wasn't here? He should go out and… and… and…
Rolling out of bed, he stalked through to the kitchen and found something to eat. He was a pathetic excuse for a saiyan warrior. Everyone had said that. He'd been told that when he had been in training and General Nappa had come through to inspect the new recruits. The bastard had told him he'd never account to anything than being just another low-class warrior.
Well, they were all dead, and he wasn't. That was something he'd achieved that they hadn't!
He glared at the window and the sun. He needed to find something to do. Go out and exhaust himself in some way to avoid having to think about his life. And he'd keep himself in shape too.
It was raining in Germany. Staring out the window, Yui sighed, and lowered the blinds.
"Something wrong, Ikari?" Dr Hood asked. The elderly scientist popped open his briefcase on the table, revealing the seven-eyed sigil within the briefcase.
She forced herself to smile. "I'm jetlagged and it's raining here. Just wishing I was back in Tokyo."
"Well, I do hope that won't ruin your speech," he said, pulling out his laptop.
"So do I," she said, shaking her head. She recovered a CD from a pocket of her blouse. "Here. My progress so far. For your analysis."
"Thank you very much, little Yui," he said patronisingly.
"And," Yui continued, passing over a second disc, "something from my father."
"Ah ha. Thank you indeed." He inserted the disc, typed in the 16 digit code, and looked at the rainbow pattern of data that appeared. "Well, well, well. So the Mother of Man stirs in her sleep."
"So I understand," Yui said.
"Our time is running out as a species," Dr Hood said. "The millennium approaches, and the Dead Sea Scrolls say that our doom will make itself evident in that year. We must ensure it is a doom we control, rather than anyone else. All too soon the doors to the Chamber of Guf will close. Ascension awaits, Yui."
"Yes, doctor."
"The Project will be the sacred vessel for godhood. It shall be an avatar of mankind unchained - and we shall chain it. It shall be our spear, thrust up at the heart of God."
"Yes doctor," Yui said again. She coughed. "Now, with regards to GEHIRN, when the UN formally founds it..."
"Ah, yes. I know you're angling for a leadership position, Yui. You're your father's daughter, indeed."
"Is that a compliment?" she asked dryly.
"It's… a statement of fact. Speaking here and now, I doubt you'll get it. You're too young - and certain individuals, myself of course not included, would not like to see GEHIRN fall too closely within the reach of FAUST." He looked Yui in the eye. "Oh, cheer up. You'd be wasted on leadership, Yui. Preliminary systems work has already begun on the Evangelions' control systems. Your work is instrumental here. Although… I have been following your systems work on power supply for such a weapons platform."
Ah. "Yes?" Yui asked, folding her hands in front of her.
"Such a curious solution for the ever-prominent issue of power. I have just one issue with it."
"What? But it's the best that can be managed within the limitations of modern technology! We won't be able to fit a nuclear reactor onboard, battery technology has its limits, and replicating our own S2 Engine is far beyond us!" Yui said, words spilling out of her mouth.
"Oh, it's not that," Dr Hood said. "Technically, the solution is clearly the best we can achieve, and your insights of how to interface the systems with the synthetic biology are without question. I believe it'll radically reform our plans and allow the designs to be scaled up. But...well, Yui, all in all… it's the name."
"The name?"
"You want to call it the 'Tail', but we at the Artificial Evolution Laboratory don't really feel that's fitting."
"I beg your pardon?"
"It's not really within theme. We're going to call the system the 'umbilical cable'. Much more fitting, eh?"
Yui opened her mouth. Yui closed her mouth. "But it's on the back!" she finally managed. "It's a tail, not an…" She sighed. "Fine. Fine. Call a tail an umbilical cable. Fine."
"See!" The old man smiled. "With an attitude like that, you'll go far. Now, chop chop. Don't you have a speech to give later today?"
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," Yui said, seething.
"... and that is why so many of the existing examples of power flow management to synthetic biology are so poorly handled," Yui said from her position on the lectern. She looked over the crowd. Every individual here was involved at least on the periphery of SEELE's great work. They might not have known exactly what was going on here, but they knew about the Impact Hypothesis and they knew that some of the samples they worked with were not from life as it was known.
"But through a four-phase rapid N-A-C-R cycle ensuring that Destrudo and Libido are kept in synthesised artificial tension, the use of a moderating medium can completely obsolete the proposed use of a Master-AGI control system. Ladies and gentlemen, through this we can massively improve the response time of the Prototype Frame and so potentially reach the capacity to extrude an AT-Field!"
The applause was overwhelming and thunderous. However, several of the people in the crowd were not applauding. Coincidentally, those people were without exception people who Yui Ikari had been sending critical and mean emails to.
One such example was Naoko Akagi, who had just been told that the use of Master-AGI systems in Project Evangelion had just been rendered obsolete.
"Ikaaaaaaaaaari," she hissed between her teeth.
"Yes, Daddy," Yui said, phone propped against her shoulder as she sat at a table in the conference hall. "Yes, it went very well. I was congratulated by several lead figures in the field afterwards. Why, Dr Bouclier said that it might be revolutionary. Yes, yes, I gave Dr Hood the files you wanted me to." She paused, listening to something. "No, Daddy, like I said, Gendo isn't with me. The funding didn't cover taking him - which is almost certainly your fault… no, I'm not being suspicious and paranoid, I just know my own father."
She listened a bit more.
"Well, I'm exhausted here," she said. "The jet lag is wrecking me. I think I'm going to just go back to my hotel and try to sleep despite the coffee. The nerves from my speech mean I'm still shaking. So I'll call you tomorrow, when I'm feeling more human. Okay. Okay. Talk to you then, then. Love you! Tell Mama that it went well too! Okay! Bye!"
Yui yawned and stretched, swirling her coffee around. Yes. Her hotel bed was calling to her. And a bath, too, if she could avoid drowning in it.
"Hello? Hello? Is Yui Ikari in here?" There was a loud clatter of falling things, and the shatter of a dropped cup. "Oopsie!"
Yui grimaced. Not now. It was her least fav… her second least… her third…
She had got down to her twelfth least favourite person in the world by the time that Dr Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu actually managed to successfully make her way over to the table where Yui was seated, only dropping her folders once more in the process. In truth, it wasn't specifically that she hated Kyoko, per se. It wasn't exactly hate.
"It's so good to see you again, Yui!" Kyoko exclaimed bouncily, wrapping her up in an embrace and incidentally mashing the pokey bits of the things she was carrying right into Yui's chest.
It was, however, extreme annoyance.
The other woman took after her German heritage and was notably taller than her, with her long strawberry blonde hair hanging messily loose. She was older than Yui chronologically, but mentally Yui considered her to be best treated as if she was around seven. She was wearing a fluffy and somewhat stained jumper, and mismatched socks. Kyoko combined a certain peppy energy with a fondness for the colour pink, extreme clumsiness, and a lack of understanding of personal space.
"So, long time no see! I haven't been back to Japan in… like, at least half a year! How've you been? I saw your presentation and it was super-amazing!"
It wasn't like she was malevolently inclined. Yui knew malevolence. She could deal with it. But mis-aimed, clumsy friendliness combined with an inability to notice that Yui didn't actually like her much meant that she was basically a nail file rasped over Yui's nerves.
"It's good to see you again, Kyoko," she said, carefully making sure her coffee was a long way away from the other woman's elbows. And not a moment too soon, because Kyoko dumped her folders onto the table without any seeming care for what had been there previously. "How have you been keeping up with things?"
And the worst thing was...
"Oh, you know how it is. I've been working on constructing the protein manifold for a cas9-based transactivator that is targeted to DNA sequences by guide RNA molecules. Combining cells harvested from Antarctic wildlife with features of the human genome, I'm hoping to achieve coexpression of this transactivator and combinations of guide RNAs in non-human cells inducing specific expression of endogenous target genes. If everything goes as it should, it'll demonstrate a simple and versatile approach for RNA-guided gene activation in terrestrial subjects!"
… she was quite possibly more intelligent than Yui herself. Yui hated to admit it, even to herself, but from all available evidence the bits of Kyoko's brain which should have been used for things like 'emotional maturity' and 'the ability to read social cues' were instead preoccupied with thinking about science.
"I see," said Yui.
"Of course the funding people are being difficult about it," Kyoko said with a pout, "but I'm sure that everyone will be able to work together and sort through all difficulties! Think of the benefits!"
"To whom?"
"I don't follow. New research is its own benefit."
Yui steepled her fingers. "I'm sorry, Kyoko, but I'm not sure your funding council will accept that."
"I know! People can be so mean sometimes!"
"Have you ever tried… phrasing your arguments and your case in a way which would be useful to the person judging it?" Yui hinted meaningfully.
Those blue eyes gazed back at her, worryingly devoid of thought for someone who was - by certain metrics - a serious contender for the most intelligent person on the planet. "Are you talking about lying to people?" Kyoko asked, shocked.
"Not lying, but…"
"You know scientists shouldn't lie!"
"That's true," Yui lied.
Kyoko reached out and grasped her by the hands, incidentally knocking two of her folders off the table. "But I just remembered! I wanted to show you something! Come on! I need a whiteboard!"
Shaking her head, Yui downed her coffee, and let herself be man-handled off by the enthusiastic German.
"So. You've solved the constraint problem," Yui said heavily.
Kyoko gestured at the whiteboard, which was now covered in cutesy pictures of giant mechanised killing machines. "Yep!" she said happily.
"You know you'll need to discuss this with the power management engineering team," Yui said, but she already knew that Kyoko's ideas would be functional. It was one of her moderately annoying habits. "Have you told anyone else yet?"
"No! I had this idea when I was listening to your speech! Now you freed up power by giving us a way to avoid having to integrate a full MAGI into the Unit, I realised this thing was possible! I had the idea in a dream, but then realised that it wouldn't work in the same dream!"
Yui massaged her temples. Piece by piece, the design of the Evangelion was taking form. She was pushing ahead, helped by things that she had derived from the records on Gendo's pod and her own examinations of his physiology, but she wasn't the sole driving force and Kyoko had just reminded her of this.
One way or another, the Evangelion would be born. Physically there were only prototype massively scaled down test models of the mechanical parts and they hadn't resolved the issue of managing the angelic flesh, but they were getting there.
She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Kyoko. She wondered if the other woman actually thought about what her work would be used for.
"It'll be incredible!" Kyoko said, adding cat ears to the demonic oni-mask she'd drawn. "With the Evangelions, just think! We'll be able to carry out mega-engineering projects we've never thought of before! They'll be the ultimate weapon of peace, because with the battery limitations no one will be able to attack anyone else because you can't invade someone when you might have an hour of power at most! And it'll keep everyone safe from the bad people! No one will dare fight anyone else when they have an Evangelion defending them!"
Ah. So she did think about what they'd be used for. She thought wrongly, but she did think.
"Very true," Yui said.
Her phone rang. It was Gendo.
"Sorry," she said, "let me just take this. It's my boyfriend." Stepping away, she answered. "What is it?"
Looking around his jail cell, Gendo considered how to put things.
"Well, you know how you're not here," he began, his scouter conveying his words to her.
"Mmm."
"So I felt I should perhaps go out and relax a bit."
"Relax a bit."
"You know, go out and train a bit in the countryside."
"Oh no," Yui whispered.
Gendo felt somewhat hurt about that. "So, there I was, practicing some moves on a nearby mountain."
"Which mountain?"
"The one near Tokyo," he said. "Obviously I wasn't going to fly too far."
"What moves were you 'practicing' on Mt Fuji?" Yui hissed.
Gendo rolled his shoulders, shifting on the hard bench. "Oh, my powerful ones. I really needed a work-out that would exhaust me, because I was having problems sleeping with you not there."
There was just silence down the other end of the line.
"So there might have been a few avalanches," Gendo continued, "and the cone might not be quite as symmetrical as it used to be."
The silence continued.
"And then maybe a few helicopters showed up," he added.
Yet more silence.
"And they may have been shooting missiles at me. So after I blew them up, I decided to go home. Only I'd been training hard and I wanted some food and a drink, so I went to a bar."
"This isn't the end?" Yui said in a breathy squeak.
"I'm getting to it! So in the bar, someone started trying to have a go at me just because I was sitting in 'his' seat."
"What kind of someone?"
"I don't know. He had a lot of tattoos, though. So did everyone else in the bar, of course. In fact, they'd been staring at me since I walked in. Of course, I wasn't going to stand for that, but I'd like to say before you say anything, I wasn't the one who threw the first punch. That was him." Gendo grinned. He had listened to her. "I did headbutt him in the hand, though. Broke every bone in his fingers. And then, well, the rest of the bar attacked me. And they had weapons!"
"Is that it?" Yui asked faintly. "You got into a fight with an entire yakuza bar?"
"It wasn't really a fight," Gendo hastened to reassure her. "None of them were any challenge at all. I wasn't even the one who set the bar on fire! That was one of them, when they tried to throw a lit bottle of spirits at me."
Yui once again was silent.
"But then the police showed up and arrested everyone. And I remembered what you said about not fighting the police, so I let them arrest me. And now I'm in a cell. They say they're willing to release me into someone's custody, though."
Yui pinched her brow. That was actually good, believe it or not. That they were willing to bail him suggested that they thought he was just an innocent person who'd been there at the time. She could just imagine how the police felt when the yakuza claimed that one man had taken down an entire bar. They probably thought the criminals were blaming it on an outsider.
"Look, just ask to call Kozo Fuyutsuki. He works at Tokyo University, and he was my undergraduate tutor," she said. No, it wouldn't be a good idea to ask her parents for help here. "I can't come collect you. I'm in Germany, remember? Just don't confess to anything, got it?"
"I understand. Love you," Gendo said.
"I love you too, but I'm not happy with you," Yui said. "Goodbye. I'll see you when I get home." She hung up, and opened the door.
Kyoko fell over, from where she had been listening at the door.
"Really?" Yui asked wearily, rather glad that she had assumed that someone had been listening to her.
"I was curious!" Kyoko said as she picked herself up, as if that explained everything. "Boyfriend problems?"
"The idiot got himself arrested by accidentally walking into a yakuza bar where they were having a fight," Yui said, anger simmering.
"Oh! I know exactly how you're feeling!" Kyoko said wisely. "A lot of my exes have had problems with the law. But Hanz is different! I'm so lucky this time that I've found someone better!"
Yui blinked. "Wasn't your boyfriend called Peter?" she asked.
"Oh, no, he left me," Kyoko said. "He was going out with someone else and then she found out and… and she put her foot down and he picked her over me." She shook her head sadly. "It wasn't the first time either. I don't know why this keeps happening to me."
Yui opened her mouth to explain. Yui decided that it was far too much effort. "I don't know," she said, squeezing Kyoko's shoulders. "But maybe it might be a good idea to focus on your work instead of relationships. You're much better at metabiology than men. I'm not telling you to break off anything," she said hastily, "but you know, Project E is at an important point," and I wouldn't trust you to pick out your own clothes, let alone engage in a relationship, she didn't add.
"How do you always seem to find things so easy, Yui?" Kyoko wailed. "You're younger than me, but you're so grown up and mature and you always know what to do. You always have a plan and you know how to talk to people."
Yui shrugged. "I don't know. I've always just known what I wanted, and worked to get it," she said. "Of course, if I have to bail my idiot boyfriend out, he's the one who's going to get it."